Since its acquisition of Verant in late 1999, SOE develops, runs, and distributes EverQuest.[2]EverQuest '​s development is ongoing, and the twenty-first expansion, The Darkened Sea, launched on October 28th, 2014. Additional subscription options of EverQuest, free-to-play Bronze Level, and a one-time fee Silver Level, were made available in March 2012.[3]

Many of the elements in EverQuest have been drawn from text-based MUD (Multi-User Dungeon) games, particularly DikuMUDs, which in turn were inspired by traditional role-playing games such as Dungeons & Dragons.[5] In EverQuest, players create a character (also known as an avatar, or colloquially as a char or toon) by selecting one of sixteen races in the game, which range from humans (basic Caucasian-looking human, dark-skinned Erudite, and barbarian), elves (high elves, wood elves, and dark elves), half-elves, dwarves, gnomes, halflings, trolls, and ogres, to cat-people (Vah Shir), lizard-people (Iksar), frog-people (Froglok), and dragon-people (Drakkin).[6] At creation, players select each character's adventuring occupation (such as a wizard, ranger, or cleric — called a class — see below for particulars), a patron deity, and starting city. Customization of the character facial appearance is available at creation (hair, hair color, face style, facial hair, facial hair color, eye color, etc.).

A Sand Giant engaging a group in the Oasis of Marr, a desert zone. The low-polygon character models, low resolution, and simple user interface suggest this screenshot was taken early in EverQuest's existence.

Players move their character throughout the medieval fantasy world of Norrath, often fighting monsters and enemies for treasure and experience points, and optionally mastering trade skills. As they progress, players advance in level, gaining power, prestige, spells, and abilities through valorous deeds such as entering overrun castles and keeps, defeating worthy opponents found within, and looting their remains. Experience and prestigious equipment can also be obtained by completing quests given out by non-player characters found throughout the land.

EverQuest allows players to interact with other people through role-play, joining player guilds, and dueling other players (in restricted situations – EverQuest only allows player versus player (PVP) combat on the PvP-specific server, specified arena zones and through agreed upon dueling).

Multiple instances of the world exist on various servers. In the past, game server populations were visible during log-in, and showed peaks of more than 3000 players per server. The design of EverQuest, like other massively multiplayer online role-playing games, makes it highly amenable to cooperative play, with each player having a specific role within a given group.

The fourteen classes of the original 1999 version of EverQuest were later expanded to include the Beastlord and Berserker classes with the Shadows of Luclin (2001) and Gates of Discord (2004) expansions, respectively.

The classes can be grouped into five general roles that share similar characteristics, as described below.

Members of this group have a high number of hitpoints for their level, and can equip heavy armor. They have the ability to taunt enemies into focusing on them, rather than other party members who may be more susceptible to damage and debilitation.

Warrior: the prototypical tank class, able to avoid and mitigate more damage than any other. In a way, this is offset by their inability to cast spells. Owing to their stalwart defensive prowess, the Warrior often has a crucial role as main tank of a group or raid party, absorbing or mitigating the sustained assaults of enraged and often numerous opponents. Their high hit points also allow them to take more punishment than most other classes before succumbing, which gives healers a greater chance to keep them, and thus the party, alive and well. In their role as tank or proverbial damage sponge, the Warrior uses their Taunt skill to keep dangerous enemies trained on them, rather than chasing down overly-aggressive wizards or rogues, who may come under attack after landing a devastating backstab or lightning strike. All these qualities may help engender a sense of trust in a well-known and well-armored warrior, who can generally go toe-to-toe with a powerful mob for longer than any other class.

Shadow Knight: a durable tank class; this Warrior/Necromancer hybrid has vampiric and damage-over-time spells. Shadow Knights have the unique ability to Harm Touch (do direct damage) every seventy-two minutes, the power of which increases in absolute terms but decreases relative to enemies' hit points as a player levels up. Since this class is a hybrid, they must wait longer than the Necromancer to begin receiving spells, and longer yet for the more potent incantations such as Summon Corpse and Feign Death. Shadow Knights are, after some time, able to summon a weak skeleton pet, as well as summon a player's corpse that is in the same zone as them, a vital skill when things have gone horribly amiss in a deep dungeon. Their Feign Death spell, similar to but slightly less reliable than one possessed by the monk class, can prove useful in dangerous situations.

Paladin: the virtuous counterpart to the Shadow Knight, a Paladin is a hybrid Warrior/Cleric. They were originally able to Lay on Hands (heal themselves or another player) once every seventy-two minutes (real-time); Lay on Hands is now available as an innate ability. At mid-levels, paladins can purchase some resurrection spells. Paladins are tough in melee with some healing, protective, and stun spells. At mid-range levels, they can purchase a "pacify" line of spells that allows them to function as a puller for a group. Like Shadow Knights, Paladins have powers which enable them to do comparatively greater damage to undead opponents.

The following classes are able to deal high corporeal damage to opponents. Within the game, these classes are often referred to as 'DPS', which stands for Damage Per Second. There isn't a definitive top DPS class, as damage dealt will depend on numerous factors which vary from one encounter to another (such as the enemy's armor, its positioning, and its magic resistance). Another complication is that while Wizards can readily deal tremendous damage to enemies, their ability to do so is limited by their remaining mana pool, as well as how fast they are able to regenerate mana. That said, Berserkers, Rogues, and Wizards are three classes most commonly cited as the highest overall damage dealers.

These melee damage dealers have a medium number of hit points per level, but cannot wear the heaviest armors and are less likely than a tank class to be able to survive direct attacks for a sustained period of time.

Beastlord: A unique class which combines some powers from the Monk and Shaman classes along with a powerful pet. Beastlords can imbue their pets with powers, and engage opponents with either hand-to-hand melee skills, or with weapons. They can de-buff enemies with spells, and possess modest healing abilities. This diverse array of skills allows Beastlords to be effective solo adventurers at many levels as well as being handy in a group.

Berserker: A specialist form of the melee type, the Berserker is primarily a medium-armored, high-damage dealer that uses two-handed weapons and who can hurl axes and other miscellanea, often stunning their enemies, or hampering their movement.

Monk: As masters of martial arts, Monks are the hand-to-hand fighting experts who can learn to use one-handed and two-handed blunt weapons, making them powerful opponents in close-quarters combat. Monks get many, if not all, combat skills (dual wield, double attack, triple attack, etc.) before any other class. Monks have the ability to feign death with a high degree of reliability, and possess additional skills that enable them to be a strong pulling class. They have the ability to heal themselves, with a moderate cooldown, with the Mend ability.

Ranger: A versatile hybrid class combining some of a Warrior's fighting prowess with a Druid's spellcasting, Rangers are able to deal large amounts of damage both from a ranged distance and in close quarters. Their most unusual ability is to track unseen NPCs, for which they are highly valued as pullers in outdoor zones. Rangers also have the ability to taunt, and they possess a harmony line of spells (like pacify, but which only works outdoors) which allow them to play the role of tank to a limited degree. They can make use of archery better than any other class. Their line of snare spells (which hampers an enemy's movement) is very useful in groups looking for quick experience, by preventing enemies from running away, as well as allowing the Ranger to effectively kite a hostile creature.

Rogue: With their backstab ability, which multiplies damage done to an unguarded enemy's back, Rogues are able to inflict massive amounts of damage, provided that they are in a group that can keep the opponent facing away from the Rogue. Later in life, with the help of alternate advancement abilities, rogues are able to backstab opponents even when facing them. Rogues have the ability to make poisons, pick pockets, and pick locks. Their abilities early on to sneak and hide allow them to walk past both living and undeadmobs without being seen.

Caster classes have the lowest hit points per level and can only wear the lightest of armors. Casters draw their power from an internal pool of mana, which takes some time to regenerate and thus demands judicious and efficient use of spells.

Wizard: The primary nuking class; these casters are able to deal catastrophic damage to enemies over a very short time from a distance, particularly with their Manaburn skill, although the length of encounters often makes manaburn inefficient to use. Wizards are considered to be the masters of teleportation, and have appropriate spells to facilitate group travel to certain locations, including designated safe spots when things turn sour for the whole group. A Wizard's direct damage spells are generally from the fire, frost, and magic schools.

Magician: Usually referred to as Mages, Magicians are similar to the Wizard class but with noticeably less direct-damage spell power. They are able to summon strong elemental pets, from the domains of Earth, Water, Air, and Fire, each with unique strengths and weaknesses. They have the ability to conjure pet armor and weapons, food, drink, and mod rods, which allow players to convert their health into mana. Magicians can summon party members to different parts of a zone with the Call of the Hero spell, which can be helpful in raid zones. Magicians' direct damage spells are generally from the fire school of magic.

Necromancer: These masters of death are able to summon, buff, and heal powerful undead pets, as well as use poison, magic, fire, and disease damage-over-time spells.[8] Necromancers are able to feign death, snare enemies, and summon players' corpses that are in the same zone. They have a potent arsenal in their spellbook, particularly with their ability to snare then fear their opponent, as well their ability to lifetap – taking the enemy's health and using it to restore their own. This allows the Necromancer to function effectively without the services of other players, perhaps moreso than any other class.

These classes share the ability to prevent enemies from attacking the party, as well as improving mana regeneration for themselves, teammates, and in the Enchanter's case, anyone they come across.

Enchanter: A caster class that has few hit points per level and can wear only the lightest forms of armor, Enchanters are crowd control experts and are the most proficient class at Charming, Stunning, and Mesmerizing enemies. They have the ability to Memory Blur an opponent (causing them to forget they had been attacked) or Pacify an opponent (making them oblivious to antagonists in the area, but which has a small chance of backfiring), both of which may be extremely useful in avoiding unwanted skirmishes. Enchanters have a wide range of utility spells, including the Clarity (AKA 'crack') line of spells, which when cast on a player allows them to regenerate mana at an improved rate. In addition to being able to both increase players' rate of attack (with the Haste line of spells), and Slowing that of enemies, Enchanters may also cast Illusions on themselves and others, which may have no real benefit (other than conferring a new look) or may grant tangible benefits such as underwater breathing, flight, or a vampiric touch. Lastly, Enchanters possess the unique Rune line of spells, which creates a magical protective buffer against all forms of damage until it has been worn down. This class is also uniquely suited for the jewelcraft trade, because it is the only class able to enchant metals.

Enchanters possess some rudimentary direct-damage and damage-over-time offensive spells, all in the Magic school of casting, although using mana in this way is not often efficient or effective.

Bard: a jack-of-all-trades class with fair melee ability, good armor, and the ability to play songs that benefit all nearby comrades. They can use crowd control songs in order to pacify hostile opponents, or help regenerate health and mana for their comrades using a different set of songs. Bards possess the unique ability to 'fade' from their enemies memories. This makes the bard an excellent pulling class. Bards possess lesser versions of many of the special abilities of other classes. They are known for their ability early on to increase the movement speed of their party faster than any mount or movement buff. Bards can weave the effects of up to four songs at once to confer the greatest advantage to their group. Bards themselves often do not receive the full benefit of their songs, but they can still be an effective solo class at many levels, especially with their strong kiting proficiency.

For a long time the Bard was generally considered the most overpowered class in the game, able to originally stack multiple versions of a single buff, and benefit from all of them, while other classes could not. The Bard is also the only class able to cast spells from items, while running.

Priest classes have medium level of hit points per level and have access to healing and "buff" spells.

Cleric: The most powerful healer in the game, and for the first few years of EverQuest the only class capable of resurrection with experience regained, and the only class with the spell Complete Heal. As the game has changed, Complete Heal has become less effective compared to the cleric's many different lines of more powerful and quicker (albeit more mana-intensive) heals. Primarily healers, the cleric also has some "death save" spells, as "Divine Intervention" and can increase spell casting haste with "Blessing of Loyalty". Clerics can wear the heaviest plate-mail type armors. Clerics are great solo classes due to the introduction of the "Vow of Valor" line of spells, which provides the cleric with increased melee damage and a high rate of self-regeneration, at the cost of halving their direct heals' power.[9]

Druid: A priest class that can cast healing spells, teleport, snare (to slow down enemies movement rate), and moderately-powerful nuking and damage-over-time spells, as well as charming animals to use them as pets. Druids may only wear leather armor, and have a number of transportation spells that allow speedy movement throughout much of the gaming world. Their combined tracking and foraging skills make them accomplished trade-skillers. Druids can, just like shamans, resurrect other players after a fight, but with the same experienced regained as a paladin, or a lower level cleric.

Shaman: Shamans can take many roles, and are often considered as a "utility" class. They are excellent in soloing, group and raid situations. While raiding, a shaman will primarily heal and enhance the attack rate of melee fighters. Shamans, or "Shammies" may cannibalize their health to restore mana, which means that they are able to keep casting their spells for much longer times than clerics or druids. They wear chain armor, and can summon an animal pet.[10]

There are several deities in EverQuest who each have a certain area of responsibility and play a role in the backstory of the game setting. A wide array of armor and weapons are also deity-tied, making it possible for only those who worship that deity to wear/equip them. Additionally, deities determine, to some extent, where characters may and may not go without being attacked on sight.

The EverQuest universe is divided into more than five hundred zones.[11] These zones represent a wide variety of geographical features, including plains, oceans, cities, deserts, and other planes of existence. One of the most popular zones in the game is the Plane of Knowledge, one of the few zones in which all races and classes can coexist harmoniously without interference. The Plane of Knowledge is also home to portals to many other zones, including portals to other planes and to the outskirts of nearly every starting city.

EverQuest II was released in late 2004.[12] Set in an alternate universe similar to that of the original EverQuest, this sequel takes place 500 years after the awakening of The Sleeper. The game has also inspired a number of other spin-offs.

The third iteration in the series, with the working title EverQuest Next, is currently in the early stages of development as first reported in the 2009 10th Anniversary EverQuest Book.[13] At the SOE Fan Faire in August 2010, in-game screenshots, concept art and more information were revealed.[14] However, since then it's been revealed that this early version of the game was scrapped and a new design is being implemented.

The design and concept of EverQuest is heavily indebted to text-based MUDs, in particular DikuMUD, and as such EverQuest is considered a 3D evolution of the text MUD genre like some of the MMOs that preceded it, such as Meridian 59 and The Realm Online. John Smedley, Brad McQuaid, Steve Clover and Bill Trost, who jointly are credited with creating the world of EverQuest, have repeatedly pointed to their shared experiences playing MUDs such as Sojourn and TorilMUD as the inspiration for the game.[5] Famed book cover illustrator Keith Parkinson created the box covers for earlier installments of EverQuest.[citation needed]

Development of EverQuest began in 1996 when Sony Interactive Studios America (SISA) executive John Smedley secured funding for a 3D game like text-based MUDs following the successful launch of Meridian 59 the previous year.[citation needed] To implement the design, Smedley hired programmers Brad McQuaid and Steve Clover, who had come to Smedley's attention through their work on the single player RPG Warwizard. McQuaid soon rose through the ranks to become executive producer for the EverQuest franchise and emerged during development of EverQuest as a popular figure among the fan community through his in-game avatar, Aradune.[citation needed] Other key members of the development team included Bill Trost, who created the history, lore and major characters of Norrath (including EverQuest protagonist Firiona Vie), Geoffrey "GZ" Zatkin, who implemented the spell system, and artist Milo D. Cooper, who did the original character modeling in the game.

EverQuest launched with modest expectations from Sony on 16 March 1999 under its Verant Interactive brand and quickly became successful. By the end of the year, it had surpassed competitor Ultima Online in number of subscriptions. Numbers continued rising rapidly until mid-2001 when growth slowed. Sony's last reported subscription numbers were given as more than 430,000 players on 14 January 2004.[15] SOE released a Mac OS X version of EverQuest in 2003, incorporating all expansions through Planes of Power. The OS X version remained available for play until November 2013, when the dedicated OS X server was shuttered.

EverQuest initially launched with volunteer "Guides" who would act as basic customer service/support via 'petitions'. Issues could be forwarded to the Game Master assigned to the server or resolved by the volunteer. Other guides would serve in administrative functions within the program or assisting the Quest Troupe with dynamic and persistent live events throughout the individual servers. Volunteers were compensated with free subscription and expansions to the game. In 2003 the program changed for the volunteer guides taking them away from the customer service focus and placing them into their current roles as roving 'persistent characters' role-playing with the players.[citation needed]

In anticipation of PlayStation's launch, Sony Interactive Studios America made the decision to focus primarily on console titles under the banner 989 Studios, while spinning off its sole computer title, EverQuest, which was ready to launch, to a new computer game division named Redeye (renamed Verant Interactive). Executives initially had very low expectations for EverQuest, but in 2000, following the surprising continued success and unparalleled profits of EverQuest, Sony reorganized Verant Interactive into Sony Online Entertainment (SOE) with Smedley retaining control of the company.[citation needed]

Many of the original EverQuest team, including Brad McQuaid, Steve Clover and Geoffrey Zatkin left SOE by 2002.[citation needed]

Verant, from 1999 to 2001, and SOE, from 2001 to 14 January 2004, issued formal statements giving some indications of the number of EverQuest subscriptions and peak numbers of players online at any given moment.[15] These records show more than 225,000 subscriptions on 1 November 1999,[citation needed] with an increase to more than 450,000 subscriptions by 25 September 2003.[citation needed]

On June 6, 2012, SOE removed the ability to buy game subscription time with Station Cash without any warning to players. SOE apologized for this abrupt change in policy and reinstated the option for an additional week, after which it was removed permanently.[16]

There have been 21 expansions to the original game since release. Expansions are purchased separately and provide additional content to the game (for example: raising the maximum character level; adding new races, classes, zones, continents, quests, equipment, game features). Additionally, the game is updated through downloaded patches. The EverQuest expansions:

The game runs on multiple game servers, each with a unique name for identification. These names were originally the deities of the world of Norrath. In technical terms, each game server is actually a cluster of server machines. Once a character is created, it can be played only on that server unless the character is transferred to a new server by the customer service staff, generally for a fee. Each server often has a unique community and people often include the server name when identifying their character outside of the game.

SOE devoted one server (Al'Kabor) to an OS X version of the game. The game was never developed beyond the Planes of Power expansion. In January 2012, SOE announced plans to shut down the server, but based on the passionate response of the player base, rescinded the decision and changed Al'Kabor to a free-to-play subscription model.[17] At about the same time, SOE revised the Macintosh client software to run natively on Intel processors. Players running on older, PowerPC-based systems lost access to the game at that point.[18] Finally in November 2013, SOE closed Al'Kabor.[19]

Two SOE servers were set up to better support players in and around Europe: Antonius Bayle and Kane Bayle. Kane Bayle was merged into Antonius Bayle.

With the advent of the New Dawn promotion, three additional servers were set up and maintained by Ubisoft: Venril Sathir (British), Sebilis (French) and Kael Drakkal (German). The downside of the servers was that while it was possible to transfer to them, it was impossible to transfer off.

The servers were subsequently acquired by SOE and all three were merged into Antonius Bayle server.[20]

EverQuest has been the subject of various criticisms. One example involves the sale of in-game objects for real currency (often through eBay). The developers of EQ have always forbidden the practice.[citation needed]

Because items can be traded within the game and also because of illegal online trading on websites, virtual currency to real currency exchange rates have been calculated. The BBC reported that in 2002 work done by Edward Castronova showed that EverQuest was the 77th richest country in the world, sandwiched between Russia and Bulgaria and its GDP per capita was higher than that of the People's Republic of China and India.[21] In 2004, a follow-up analysis of the entire online gaming industry indicated that the combined GDP of the online "worlds" populated by the two million players was approximately the same as that of Namibia.[22]

Companies created characters, leveled them to make them powerful, and then resold the characters or specialized in exchanging money between games. A player could exchange a house in The Sims Online for EverQuest platinum pieces, depending solely on market laws of supply and demand.

Sony officially discourages the payment of real-world money for online goods, except on certain "Station Exchange" servers in EverQuest II, launched in July 2005. The program facilitates buying in-game items for real money from fellow players for a nominal fee. At this point this system only applies to select EverQuest II servers; none of the pre-Station ExchangeEverQuest II or EverQuest servers are affected.[23]

Another well-publicized incident from October 2000, usually referred to as the "Mystere incident", involved Verant banning a player for creating controversial fan fiction, causing outrage among EverQuest players and sparking a major industry-wide debate about players' rights and the line between roleplaying and intellectual property infringement. The case was used by several academics in discussing such rights in the digital age.[24]

Massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPGs) are described by some players[28] as "chat rooms with a graphical interface". The sociological aspects of EverQuest (and other MMORPGs) are explored in a series of online studies on a site known as "the HUB".[28] The studies make use of data gathered from player surveys and discuss topics like virtual relationships, player personalities, gender issues, and more.

In May 2004, Woody Hearn of GU Comics called for all EverQuest gamers to boycott the Omens of War expansion in an effort to force SOE to address existing issues with the game rather than release another "quick-fire" expansion.[29] The call to boycott was rescinded after SOE held a summit to address player concerns, improve (internal and external) communication, and correct specific issues within the game.[citation needed]

On 17 January 2008, the Judge of the 17th Federal Court of Minas Gerais State forbade the sales of the game in the whole Brazilian territory. The reason was that the game leads the players to a loss of moral virtue and takes them into "heavy" psychological conflicts because of the game quests.[30]